People called us fools, you know? Idiots, more guided by feelings than facts. We would ruin our lives, they said. We would burn out in a year, they said. Romeo and Juliet part 2.

I didn't care. She was mine, and I was hers. And there was no one else I would ever want to be with more than her.

Her father wanted her married off to the son of one of his business partners. To a guy that would treat her not with the love she deserves, but as barely a show piece. Someone to watch over the house while he partied and drank and made out with hookers.

She didn't want that. I didn't want that. So? We got married at 18. As soon as we could, we eloped.

I took all the money I had saved up and spent it on two plane tickets and a studio apartment on the other side of the country. Finding work would have been easy. We were both Certified Nursing Assistants, having taken the test on "vacation" in the state we were hiding in.

With everything set up, we said our farewells to our family and friends and made our way across the Appalachian Mountains before her father could ever think to stop us.

Life was hard, at first. New stresses in a new environment wasn't a small hurdle to overcome. But she made everything worth it. Every time we would come home after a long day and get to see each other's faces we knew we had made the right decision.

She was my everything. My rock and rescuer. No one else cared when the friendless orphan got into another fight. Too moody and self-absorbed to care much for who he hurt or stole from.

She was different. She saw me, beaten and bruised in a back alley and immediately moved to help me. She patched me up, talked to me about my situation. She wasn't dismissive, but she didn't pity me either. It was strange. Novel, being treated like that.

Soon after that I would notice her in the hallways at school. Wave at her when I spotted her in the cafeteria. All the usual cutesy stuff.

We got to know each other more, eventually. We were just friends at first. She introduced me to some of hers, and they were amazing, but I knew I couldn't just ignore her. She became far more important to me.

I asked her out.

Choices were made and things happened, but in the end we became a couple.

She was everything I dreamed of and more.

She was kind and graceful. Beautiful and strong. Confidant and giving.

She was what my life revolved around.

Then one day, just another day. A regular day, I went to sleep with her next to me. I had just come back from a job interview at a regional hospital, and I knew in my bones they would call me back and I would get the position. I still remember how she smiled when I told her how the interview went.

Maybe now that I look back at it, I wasn't meant to have that much happiness. I wasn't meant to live with someone too good for me. The universe decided it needed rebalancing or something, I don't know.

But I woke up here. And she wasn't next to me. Another world. Expansive and vibrant and new. Ninjas and chakra and giant beasts and everything in-between. Actual parents. New friends. Opportunity and purpose. Everything a man could ask for.

It was as good as hell without her there.

So I'm sorry, Naruto. But I can't stay for you.

I wanted to say so much more. Talk about how much you mean to me. How much I cherish the memories of all of our adventures together. How much you've done for me, and how much I know you will do as Hokage, but I'm afraid I'm running out of time. I have to go now.

I'm sorry. For all of this. I hope you can forgive me.

Signed with love,

Sakura.

A/N. So yeah. This whole idea sprang forth from the idea of: What if The Gamer had like, an actual end goal besides becoming an omnipotent god. Lots of good Gamer stories end prematurely, I believe, because they don't have a tangible end goal in mind. They just kind of go off the initial power trips and then get boring and bogged down in what essentially becomes flavor text and endless pages of stats and effects.

This story won't be that. In fact, you won't see much of the usual with this Gamer story at all. If you've read my other fic A Stained Fang you already know I like to do things different, and while this story won't nearly be as deviant as I plan that one to be, it's still a shake up from the norm on this site. I hope you're as excited as I am! See you next chapter.